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Best of the Spectator

The Edition: The Pope's AI warning – and how Restore split the right, again

Best of the Spectator

The Spectator

News, News Commentary, Daily News, Society & Culture

4.3826 Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2026

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For this week’s Edition, Lara Prendergast is joined by the Spectator's deputy editor Freddy Gray, associate editor – and host of the Holy Smoke podcast – Damian Thompson and consultant psychiatrist and Daily Mail columnist Dr Max Pemberton.


This week, the guests examine the Pope's encyclical about Artificial Intelligence (AI), Magnifica Humanitas, which warns of the cost to humanity that this technological revolution could bring. This marks Pope Leo's first major policy intervention, a warning which Spectator editor Michael Gove celebrates in the magazine this week. Michael says that AI will be ‘as transformative as the Industrial Revolution’ yet decisions ‘about where this technology is going and how it might be deployed are concentrated… in perilously few hands’. Damian argues that the Pope has passed the first test of his pontificate, but is AI changing how we view religion? As Max reveals the lies that an AI model told his partner, the guests ponder: could AI really extinguish humanity?


Also this week: can you tell the difference between Reform UK and Restore Britain? As a recent poll suggested that Rupert Lowe's Restore could harm Reform's chances in the Makerfield by-election, the team discuss whether they believe the polls and what it means if the Right fracture further. Damian dismisses followers of Restore Britain as 'quite brainwashed young fascists' – what is the appeal of Rupert Lowe?


Plus: how weight loss jabs can reduce more than just your appetite for food; why Gen Z are missing out on the pleasures of boozing; and, from dinner with Hugh Grant to meeting the nun Sister Wendy Beckett, the guests reveal the moments from their lives they'd love to relive.


Produced by Patrick Gibbons.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Subscribe to The Spectator and get 12 weeks of Britain's most incisive politics coverage, unrivaled books and arts reviews, and so much more, all for just £12.

0:10.0

Not only that, but we'll also send you a £20 Amazon gift card, absolutely free.

0:16.5

Go to www.spictator.com forward slash voucher to claim this offer now.

0:28.0

Hello and welcome to the edition from The Spectator.

0:31.8

I'm Laura Prendergars, the Spectator's executive editor,

0:34.8

and the latest issue of the magazine has just gone to press.

0:38.7

To discuss what's in it, I'm joined now by our deputy editor and the editor of our US edition,

0:43.8

Freddie Gray, our associate editor and Vatican correspondent Damien Thompson,

0:49.1

and the consultant, psychiatrist and daily mail columnist Dr. Max Pemberton.

1:05.3

This week's cover has the headline, Deiase v. Machina, and it's been written by our editor, Michael Gove.

1:09.9

In it, he says that Pope Leo is fighting the good fight against AI.

1:14.0

Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed.

1:19.3

The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention,

1:23.6

awakening consciences, and indicating paths forward for humanity.

1:30.4

So, Damon, were you intrigued to see the Pope making an intervention against AI?

1:36.0

I was impressed that he should tackle such a difficult subject,

1:40.0

and maybe that's why it's taken him over a year to produce his first encyclical,

1:44.2

which is what they call the huge teaching documents that come from Rome.

1:49.8

And my goodness, it's got people talking.

1:53.1

And he plundered straight into the heart of the debate about AI,

1:59.4

actually saying what he thinks AI is. And I have to be honest,

2:06.2

AI was very helpful in plucking it out for me.

...

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